Gov. Rick Snyder in Detroit to launch $12.8M Globe Building remake

Oct. 6, 2012

Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan took a 1 1/2 mile bike ride up the Dequindre Cut towards Eastern Market after his press conference in front of the historic Globe Trading Building at Atwater and Orleans in downtown Detroit on Saturday, October 6, 2012. / ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press

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Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan called a press conference in front of the historic Globe Trading Building at Atwater and Orleans in downtown Detroit on Saturday, October 6, 2012. Snyder joined with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to announce that the building would become a state funded DNR family adventure and education center. / ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press

Renderings of what the William G. Milliken State Park - Outdoor Adventure and Discovery Center will look like.
Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan held a press conference in front of the historic Globe Trading Building at Atwater and Orleans in downtown Detroit on Saturday, October 6, 2012. / Handout

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Gov. Rick Snyder Saturday launched the $12.8-million remake of the historic but derelict Globe Building on Detroit’s east riverfront. – another one of the Detroit projects skeptics had believed could never happen.

With construction starting later this year or early next year, the Globe should reopen no later than in late 2013 or early 2014 as a state Department of Natural Resources adventure and education center. Features will include a climbing wall, a kayaking simulator and demonstrations on Michigan’s historic lumber industry, and more.

Speaking to about 100 people at the nearby Milliken State Park & Harbor, Snyder gestured toward the eyesore Globe, which has been vacant for decades: and with its broken windows and gaping openings seems to be barely able to stand up. “I want everyone to remember what that looks like today, so when we come back and see what it looks like, we can see what the power of working together can do.” and the opportunity to reinvent Michigan and the opportunity to reinvent Detroit.”

The Globe Building, also known by its earlier name Detroit Dry Dock Engine Works, dates to the late 19th century, when it served as a maintenance center for Great Lakes shipping. The building is notable for several reasons, among them its innovative steel frame structure and its connection to a young Henry Ford, who apprenticed there as a machinist.

Snyder and other speakers noted that the Globe project fits into the city’s and state’s wider plans to remake the Detroit riverfront as a year-round live, work, and play environment. The Globe will be part of the Milliken State Park, which itself complements the Detroit RiverWalk.

The building also borders the Dequindre Cut, a greenway that runs north toward Eastern Market and that eventually will link with a broader network of greenways in Midtown and around the city.

North of Atwater Street, meanwhile, the city hopes eventually to see upscale residential projects rise once the real estate market improves.

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Snyder recalled that when he started work after college in 1982, he worked in the Renaissance Center. “The riverfront wasn’t a very pretty site. It was an ugly riverfront, to be blunt,” he said. “Now look at what we have today thanks to people working together, about being positive about having a vision for the future.”

Under a deal for the building, the city’s Economic Development Corp., a quasi-public board that holds title to the Globe for the city, will sell it for $1 to a local entity created by the Roxbury Group, a Detroit-based developer. Roxbury will then develop it to the DNR’s specs with the help of a construction loan from Key Bank.

Upon completion, the DNR will buy the building for $11 million provided by a grant by the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.

The total project cost of $12.8 million also includes a brownfield-redevelopment tax credit approved by state and local authorities.

DNR Director Keith Creagh said the center will also welcome school field trips, giving students a chance to learn about the outdoors through the simulators and exhibits. “Whether you want to fly fish or kayak or cut a tree down or learn about the outdoors, the Globe Building will allow that to occur,” he said.

George Jackson, president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., who helped negotiate the deal to transform the Globe, told the audience that the project is part of a long-term effort to remake the riverfront from its former industrial past. “It will become a place where people live, work and play,” Jackson said.

Remaking the Globe will require major surgery. About half of the building on the western side will be removed to make way for a more modern structure, into which the eastern section will be incorporated. “This is not an easy project. No historic property is an easy project, let me assure you. There will always be surprises,” Jackson said.

Detroit-based Roxbury Group , a private developer, is working with DNR to transform the Globe. Ann Arbor-based Hobbs & Black architects did the design work, and Detroit-based Walbridge will serve as the contractor.

Snyder emphasized that the work of rebuilding Detroit is not done. “We’ve got the Dequindre Cut, we’ve got Eastern Market, what great progress. Now let’s just go faster,” he said.